Dec 11
1
OK, it has been a little more than a few days since part 1 of this series…more like a month. But the important thing is that I’m finishing this up here.
So the overall premise of the original blog post (which I wrote on October 31), was that a healthy weight loss plan is not some crash diet or weird restrictive thing where you eat only fruit and protein shakes for a month straight…I know someone who did that, and about the only measurable outcome from that “diet” was increased time in the john!
OK, so now that we’ve established that the best overall healthy weight loss plans are not crash diets, let me get back into what I consider the fundamentals of weight loss eating.
Oh, before I continue, if you would like to read part 1 of this little series first, check out Healthy Weight Loss Plans part one by clicking the previous link.
If you do not know how to follow a link (or you’re too lazy to read my previous post) let me summarize for you really quickly here:
- Cut out calorie containing drinks – drink primarily water and tea throughout the day
- Eat lots of lean protein – with every meal, in fact
- Eat vegetables constantly – raw, fresh, frozen, cooked, etc…doesn’t much matter. Just eat em’
Those are the first three fundamentals of any weight loss eating plan. The second three fundamentals of any weight loss eating plan are, in my opinion, much more fun.
Here they are (1-3 first):
- Cut out calorie containing drinks – drink primarily water and tea throughout the day
- Eat lots of lean protein – with every meal, in fact
- Eat vegetables constantly – raw, fresh, frozen, cooked, etc…doesn’t much matter. Just eat em’
- Eat all day long! OK, so there’s a little more to it than just that…I usually eat about 5-6 meals per day. If your goal is healthy weight loss, then I would recommend 5-6 small meals per day (or 3 medium sized meals and 2 or 3 small snacks in between larger meals). This way, you’re constantly being fed, which means that the body has a constant nutrient supply (i.e. nothing left over to store as fat) and psychologically, you are not going long periods of time without getting to eat. Yayyy!
- Eat fat every day…just make sure that it’s the healthy kind of fat. Try to limit saturated fats, avoid trans fats, and focus on the healthy mono and polyunsaturated fats. Good sources of healthy fat include olive oil, avocados, nuts, seeds, and natural peanut butter.
- CHEAT!! My favorite one. For sanity’s sake, allow about 10% of your meals to be cheaters. Drink some beers on Friday night, eat some pizza, wings, or snack on some brownies. Just make sure that you don’t go overboard and that you keep this to about 10% of your meals. So if you’re eating 6 meals a day seven days per week, limit these cheats to about 4 meals per week.
There you go…hope this helped lay the ground work for your weight loss eating plan. Remember, crash diets and weird restrictive eating patterns have not place in healthy weight loss plans. So follow these fundamentals and you will be well on your way to melting that fat off!
